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His father was an honored magistrate who was found dead by the boy himself when he was twelve years old. After experiencing such a tragedy, his emotions screamed and shut the world out, making very difficult for the boy to express himself. Yet for the rest of his life, he would wonder if his father's death was truly due to natural causes, and asked himself if he'd kept his mind clear of emotion, would he have seen something out of place? [1]

Hiro had been found over an unfinished play, which depicted Hiro's autobiography. They realized Hiro had been blackmailed and forced to produce plays that were fed to him, and he never had written any of his works. During their investigation Kinaro saved Ichiguki to become poisoned with a tea cup, and Ichigaku managed to take as prisoner the assassin, but he was timely killed with a poisoned dart from an unknown assailant. Kinaro had had a glimpse of a woman who had been involved, and remembered her face. Kinaro left to the Colonies to get testimony from Hiro's daughter, Kakita Maratai, while Ichigaku remained in the Empire. [1]

Kinaro arrived to the Colonies, to the Second City, found Hiro's daughter with the aid of Bayushi Makubesu, and told her that her father had been murdered. Years before Maratai had witnessed her father in conversation with the blackmailer, and she learned Hiro was not writing his own plays. Maratai had tried to do the right thing, but her father denied everything and she only succeeded in shaming herself, so she was exiled. [5] Kinaro and Makubesu headed to the North Windizakaya, where he told an assassin was following him. They devised how to turn the expected ambush against the assailant, and they managed to defeat the ninja, who impaled himself on the Scorpion's blade. Makubesu knew the man was the product of a Spiderdojo. The magistrates timely arrived to save the life of Maratai, who had been attacked by a Goju. [6] Kinaro sent Maratai to the Dragon Embassy as a guest. She stayed there during the Siege of the Second City and the impending assault of the Ninth Imperial Legion, [7] which they survived. [8]

In 1199 the city was plagued with fires during the riots provoked by the influx of P'an Ku. Kinaro and Maratai moved to the House of the Sparrow's Song, to protect themselves inside a stone building in the Artisan District. Kinaro began to feel the grip of the mad dragon upon his will, but Maratai aided him to hold his sanity. He was wounded by the same Goju who had attacked them time before, and they were saved by the timely arrival of Kakita Ichigiku, who killed the assassin. They met Makubesu on the streets, and the group followed suit to the Imperial District. [2] Kinaro lost an eye from the fight. [9]

The group moved to Toshi Ranbo, and Kinaro began to suffer nightmares with sweat-soaked awakenings, lingering visions of a porcelain-faced monster standing over his body. He awoke with limbs tangled in silk sheets, like spider's webbings. It was a secret to all but Ichigiku. Meanwhile Makubesu found a hidden code in the unfinished play of Maratai's father, Sins of the Father. He guessed that the point of Hiro's plays was to convey hidden messages to Spider Clan members in public. [10]

Susumu Takada arranged a meeting with Kinaro, in the presence of Ichigiku. The courtier told Kinaro's sister had been betrothed to an honorable man. The Spider requested Hiro's last play, claiming it had been commissioned by the Kitsuki Daimyo as a gift for the Susumu. Takada confimed that Kinaro had been targeted by Spider assassins not acting under the orders of the Spider. He stated they had nothing of substance connecting the Spider to the playwright's death and the Susumu would politically destroy them unless they dropped the investigation. Kinaro handed over the play to Takada, disappointing Ichiguki. [10] Makubesu passed to Ichigiku several copies and originals of the previous Hiro's plays, and she worked with Kinaro to find the messages hidden in such writtens. [9]

Makubesu, Ichigiku, and Kinaro worked together, exposing that Spider agents passed the messages during the performances of the plays, working as stageworkers, and marking the encoded sentence to another Spider agent who was watching it. Using these plays, the Spider leadership was able to issue orders across the lands, organizing their forces in spite of vast distances, and in the plain sight of the rest of the Empire. Makubesu realized these plays were used to mark the targets of the Night of the Assassins, such as Tamori Shaitung, Doji Nagori, Moshi Amika and many others. Ichigiku wrote a scroll with these allegations, and alongside Kinaro passed it to Susumu Takada, saying this matter was no longer in their jurisdiction, as it was now under the purview of the Emerald Magistrates. The high ranking Spider courtier was forced to present the scroll to the current Emerald Champion, Utaku Ji-Yun, as the past sins of those who were Spider, currently a Great Clan endorsed by the Empress herself. [11]

During the time of the investigation Kinaro became fond of Ichigiku, and she corresponded. Despite it, they followed different paths after the investigation was over, to perform their next duties. [11]